I turned to Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle to help me cure my picky eater. Now, I’m familiar with her schtick: she usually relies on aversion therapy, magic, or–in the case of the picky eater cure–a combination of both. Unfortunately, she failed to understand the basic psychology of the picky eater, and therefore I have serious doubts that her cure would prove successful.
The kid in this story eats a perfectly normal assortment of foods his whole life. Then one day, he turns up his nose at his old favorites. He goes so far as to accompany his distaste with gagging noises and audible “yucks.” Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle, true to form, provides his mother with a magical powder that will transform all his food into boiled noodles–the only thing he agrees to eat. At first he’s delighted, but sure enough, after a few breakfasts, lunches, and dinners of nothing but boiled noodles, he sees realizes how boring his life is without a wide variety of foods. He agrees to go out with his father for pizza.(more…)